Broken
by Ms.Orange21
Summary: After saying goodbye in the Looking Glass room, Hatter doesn't follow Alice, and Alice doesn't stay in Wonderland.  Why?   Because each thinks they know what's going on in the other's head.  NOW COMPLETE
1. Loss

**Disclaimer: **_nope, not mine. And that makes me very depressed. I want a Hatter of my own. I will, of course, settle for a cute man with a British accent..._

**A/N:** _Beta and co-writing credit goes to my girl **Renee-chan**_._ Thank you for your patience and putting up with my constant emails! LOL Please read and review! I'll have the second half up sometime this weekend :-)_

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_The broken clock is a comfort, it helps me sleep tonight_

_Maybe it can stop tomorrow from stealing all my time_

_I am here still waiting though I still have my doubts_

_I am damaged at best, like you've already figured out_

Alice looked over at the clock on her bedside table. 12:27 p.m. She didn't have the energy to get out of bed. It had been three days. Three days since she woke up in the hospital. Three days since she returned from Wonderland. She was unconscious for an hour, the equal of three days in the other world. She held up her arm in front of her face and looked at where the green "oyster" mark had been. Nothing marred her skin.

An hour unconscious, three days in Wonderland.

And it was all a dream.

Wonderland was all a dream. Charlie. Her father. Hatter.

But, if it was all a dream, how did it feel so real? How could it all be a dream when the pain of her father's death literally took her breath away?

And Hatter… Alice's heart constricted when she thought about him. She hadn't always been sure how she felt about him, but whatever she'd been feeling, it had always run deep. Whether it was hatred and betrayal, or eventually loyalty, trust... and something more. She had learned more about Hatter and felt more strongly for him in three days than she had about Jack in the entire six weeks she'd been dating him. And she had thought that maybe... he might have felt just as deeply for her. He'd risked himself on three separate occasions to save her - a man who never risked himself, only others. He'd shared pieces of himself with her, bits of knowledge that he'd guarded closely, feelings and thoughts that he'd never shared with anyone - a man who never showed his true face. And then there had been that near kiss in the woods... Alice might not know exactly what she was feeling for him, but she *did* know she wanted to explore it. And she wanted him to say something – anything – to give her an idea that he felt the same, that he also felt that pull, the strength of the emotions that had grown between them. But instead, she caught him trying to sneak out of the mirror room before they could even say goodbye, had even had the brass to flippantly joke around about her staying or him visiting. As if this thing between them was just a game, a moment's fancy to help pass the time.

But if it was only a game, a flight of fancy... a dream within a dream... how could the thought of him still cause her pulse to race?

It had been three days... only three days here on Earth. How long was that in Wonderland? A week? A month? Did it vary?

Three days and Alice missed Hatter so much it hurt. Three days... did he miss her the way she missed him? How could he? He never came. Not even as a joke, not even to visit, not even to say "Hello."

Not that it mattered. It was all a dream... Right?

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_The broken locks were a warning you got inside my head_

_I tried my best to be guarded, I'm an open book instead_

_And I still see your reflection inside of my eyes_

_That are looking for purpose, they're still looking for life_

Hatter stared around at the remains of his destroyed Tea Shop. Though he had never touched a drop of it before, he found himself praying that there was some Emotion Tea left. He needed to feel something... **anything **other than the pain and emptiness he was feeling in the wake of Alice's departure and denial. He had thought that they were on the same page… that they were beginning to become something more than forced comrades and coconspirators...

He was wrong.

She didn't want him. She wanted Jack, the Prince- no, _King_ of Wonderland. And who could blame her? The cultured and coiffed son of royalty could offer her much more than the ex-proprietor of a decimated Tea Shop. Hell... Jack could make her a queen. And who wouldn't want that? Clearly, Alice did. It was obvious in the way she smiled at him, the way she hugged Jack in front of the Looking Glass. In that moment, Hatter had realized that he didn't stand a chance and he tried to sneak away... but she caught him. He'd tried to make the best of it, tried to put a brave face on it, tried not to show her how much her denial had hurt him. The effort was stilted at best. They'd shared an awkward conversation and an even more awkward hug. Alice had then casually asked him if he wanted her to stay, but her voice clearly relayed that she wanted nothing more than to go home. And then had come the final coup de grace... she gave him back the coat. He had intended it as a gift, had thought she would keep it to remember him by... had thought she would want something to remember him by. But, apparently, he'd been wrong about that, too.

At that moment, Hatter would have given anything for her to ask him to go through the Looking Glass with her for good, for her to want him. Instead, she'd given him a weak, "You could always visit my world..." and another awkward moment had descended.

Right. Visit. Like he'd never done that before. He'd visited plenty. He wanted another kind of offer from her, one he thought she might have been considering just the day before.

It looked like he was wrong about everything.

He walked around the rubble, making his way to the back office. There wasn't even one bottle of Emotion Tea left - not one bloody bottle. Hatter sighed, ripping the hat from his head, angrily. He wanted to hit something, anything, he almost didn't care what. As long as he could feel the satisfying **crunch** of something breaking under the weight of his fist. But he was too emotionally drained to even contemplate that kind of proactive behavior. So, instead he fell back on his earlier desire for oblivion and sat down at his old desk to start to go through the drawers. Hopefully there would be something left in its hidden depths that the queen's soldiers had overlooked in their rampage... something that could take away this pain.

After a few minutes of futilely searching, Hatter remembered the false bottom in the deep bottom right drawer. Reaching in, he pressed the button to open the catch. He gave a wry smile when he saw what was in the bottom: a bottle of tea-infused vodka. He'd almost forgotten about that.

Years ago the Queen of Hearts had banned anything and everything that wasn't Emotion Tea, that wasn't the false euphoria of drained Oyster emotions. There was to be nothing real, nothing one had to depend on one's self to feel. No alcohol, no singing, no dancing, no playing games… no love. Nothing that could bring on a happy or sad feeling that wasn't Tea-induced.

The vodka was from a smuggler that had frequented the Tea Shop and specialized in Oyster items. In need of a fix and lacking the necessary funds for the Emotion Tea, he had given Hatter the vodka as payment. Being the tea connoisseur that he was, and always interested in finding something new and different that he could offer his clientele, Hatter had accepted and saved the alcohol for a later date.

He decided that now was the perfect time to test out the Oyster concoction. After all, the worst it could do was kill him... and right now he wasn't altogether certain that that would be a negative change. Opening the bottle, he sat down in his formerly pristine white chair and proceeded to get completely and thoroughly drunk. He couldn't have said whether or not he truly enjoyed the sensation, but at least with enough of the stuff in his system, he couldn't think... couldn't remember. It was appealing, to say the least.

Of course, he didn't have enough of a supply to keep himself numb for long. Fortunately, now that the queen was overthrown, Wonderland slowly began to go back to normal. Wonderlandian alcohols were being produced again, along with the Oyster drinks that the smugglers were still bringing in. Hatter had his choice of oblivion. He found he was fond of the Oyster creations, and made a deal with he smuggler he originally got the drink from. Keep him supplied and Hatter wouldn't smash his face in… since the only feeling he had that was stronger than his desire to forget was the desire to destroy something… anything. So the smuggler readily agreed to whet his whistle at a very low price.

And that was how Hatter spent the next two weeks. Once he had more alcohol in his possession, he spent his time drowning himself in it, only venturing out occasionally to find a bit to eat... but not too much. It had been way too long since the last time he'd be as drunk as he was the first night that Alice left, and he'd forgotten what a hangover felt like. The pounding headache, followed by the extreme nausea had brought those memories back quickly. He had a fleeting moment to rethink his decision to drown himself in booze and self-pity, but the wave of memories that accompanied his sobering up won that argument for him. The nausea and headache were more than welcome in comparison to that. He didn't want to remember. Didn't want to think about the feel of Alice's small arms wrapped around him as they sped away on those flamingos. Didn't want to think about the pride and joy he'd felt when he realized that she'd come back for him at the castle. Didn't want to think about how milky white her skin looked in the moonlight... or the rich, mahogany dark of her hair... or how the piercing gleam of her silver eyes seemed to see right through him. No... he didn't want that at all. Right now, all he wanted to do was forget.

_I'm falling apart, I'm barely breathing_

_With a broken heart that's still beating_

**A/N 2:** _song is "Broken" by Lifehouse._


	2. Return

**Disclaimer: **_nope, not mine. And that makes me very depressed. I want a Hatter of my own. I will, of course, settle for a cute man with a British accent..._

**A/N:** _Okay, I lied. I broke this up into 3 parts. Here is part 2! Beta and co-writing credit goes to my girl **Renee-chan**_._ Thank you for your patience and putting up with my constant emails! LOL Please read and review! _

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Alice looked at the clock once again. 1:42 p.m. She had finally forced herself out of bed, showered and gotten dressed. She'd even put on a little make-up. All that and only an hour had passed. An hour... or several days, all depending on where one spent that time, right? And for some reason, the apartment felt huge to her today and as quiet as a graveyard. She didn't even have anywhere she had to be for the rest of the week. Her classes were done for the semester and thanks to the bump on her head and the overnight stay in the hospital, the dojo had forced her to take the week off. While the concern was appreciated - and warranted, to be fair - Alice would have been happier to have something to do to take her mind off her recent adventure... or concussion-induced hallucination, as the case might very well be. Either way. And her mother had not been helping. Hovering and overprotective, sensing that something was vitally wrong, but unable to figure out what, she'd been driving Alice to distraction. Finally, after much hemming and hawing, cajoling and pleading, Alice had eventually managed to reassure her that she was fine. Reluctantly, her mother agreed to leave her unattended when she left on her business trip this morning.

Only now that she was alone, Alice had to wonder if solitude had really been a wise choice. Being left alone with her thoughts was not necessarily a good thing right now, as her fitful preoccupation with her time in Wonderland was proving. Her mind kept drifting back there, to Wonderland... and Hatter. Real or dream? Every ounce of common sense in her screamed that it was all a dream, but her heart... her heart believed it was real. She sat on the couch with her chin in her hand, pondering. After a few moments, she came to a resolution. She wasn't going to find any answers sitting here. There was only one place that such answers could be found. And whether she found out that her recent memories were false or real, she needed those answers. Alice went into her bedroom and threw a few shirts and an extra pair of jeans in a backpack, put on her sneakers and headed out the door. She was going to solve this now before she went crazy.

She made her way back to the abandoned building and tried to remember the way to where the mirror was. After a few minutes of wandering around, Alice froze. She didn't know what she had really expected... but in her heart of hearts, she really hadn't believed that that she would find even a hint of the events of her memories. Instead, she found the mirror. It was exactly where she remembered it, grand and antique, absolutely breathtaking in its sheer solidness. This... if the mirror was here, was real, was exactly as she remembered it... then the rest...

Taking a deep breath, she raised both her hands and pressed them against the glass. It shimmered and wavered under her touch. Her breath caught in her throat in excitement. It was real. Though she hadn't made a conscious decision before this very moment, it didn't take long for her to make up her mind about what she wanted to do... what she needed to do next. Recalling the mirror worker's words from two days ago and taking a deep breath, she stepped through the mirror without even a backward glance.

To her surprise, this trip was much different. Unlike the violent falling of her other two trips, this was a floating, almost pleasant experience. She came to a gentle stop at the bottom and felt a push, then she next thing she knew, she was coming out of the other side of the mirror into the Looking Glass room.

"Miss, what are you… Lady Alice," exclaimed the mirror-worker. "What are you doing back here?"

She gave him a huge smile, her heart almost giddy with joy. "Testing a theory. Please, tell the king I'll visit him later, but I have somewhere I need to go." Alice started to walk away, then paused. Turning back around she smiled again as she asked the attendant, "Is there someone who can give me directions?"

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It didn't take her long to reach her destination, but when she did, she was a little shocked at the hustle and bustle going on. Hatter's Tea Shop was a veritable cacophony of industry. Construction workers were busy at work making repairs and rebuilding the damage done by the suits and Mad March. She looked around, and eventually spotting the little, sleepy man snoring away at his podium. What was his name? Something with a "D"….. Donnie? Danny? No, Dormie. It was Dormie. Alice walked over to him.

"Excuse me?" Nothing. "Dormie? Dormie? DORMIE."

"Huh, wha…" he mumbled, jerking awake and looking up to see Alice frowning at him. "Alice of Legend! What are you doing here?"

A slight start at that. "You know who I am?"

"There isn't a person in Wonderland who doesn't know who you are!" the poor little man looked so scandalized that Alice almost regretted asking.

She sighed inwardly. _Good Point. _"What's going on in here?" she asked, gesturing around the room.

"The king offered to pay for repairs on the shop since it was his mother's people that ruined it. Even sent palace construction workers over. They've been working non-stop for two weeks."

_It's been two weeks here, _she though, stomach dropping a bit. _Two weeks his time and he never even tried to contact me. _Alice cleared her throat and said to Dormie, "I can't believe Hatter okayed that."

"He's been…. pre-occupied…." Dormie said nervously.

She narrowed her eyes at him. "With what?"

"Oh, just… finding things… for the shop…"

Well that didn't sound like anything good. "Well, where is he? I need to talk to him."

At that, Dormie's eyes widened into a look of horror, "Oh, no no no, Hatter's not taking any visitors! Uh…. Specific orders!"

Now Alice raised her eyebrow. This definitely didn't sound like anything good. "Somehow, I think he'll see me. I'm a friend... remember?" she said, stepping around the little man. Dormie surprised her by blocking her path.

"I'm sorry, Miss Alice. No. Visitors." Eyes taking on a sad cast, he added, "Especially you, I would think."

Ignoring the pang of hurt that ran through her at those last words, Alice bent over to look the mouse-like man straight in the eyes. She gave him a pleasant smile, but her words were harsh. "I have faced down a Jabberwock, more suits than you can count and the Queen of Hearts, herself. I'm a black belt in Judo. And the way I'm feeling right now, I'm not above hitting someone smaller than myself. I'm going to see Hatter and if you don't get out of my way, I will forcibly move you." Alice waited a full 10 seconds for a response before she realized that Dormie had fallen asleep. Well... that was anticlimactic, not to mention vaguely unsatisfying, but at least it was convenient. She sighed and walked around him, making her way to Hatter's office.

Opening the door, she peeked in. Now this sort of destruction was what she had expected to see when she entered the shop. The office was a wreck, to put it kindly. Hatter's papers were in drifts and piles on the floor like some sort of odd artificial snow, there was a mess of empty and broken bottles and the clothing rack at the back of the room was tipped over with the coats strewn everywhere. Things were broken and flung all over the floor like a tornado had ripped through the area. Even Hatter's precious grass was flattened, trampled on, and turning brown in spots.

Almost worse than that, though, was the smell. It smelled like a frat house the day after a big party. Alcoholic fumes wafted through the room. Alice found herself wondering if she could get buzzed off the alcohol content of the air alone. Alice wrinkled her nose at the odor, bending down to pick up one of the bottles. Vodka. She frowned and went to grab another. More vodka. Firefly. Grey Goose. She wrinkled her nose as she saw a bottle of Patron XO Café. He was drinking something **_coffee_** flavored? Where on Earth had this all come from? And more importantly... why?

Alice glanced over to the side where Hatter's couch was. There he was… the person who had haunted her thoughts for the past three days… sleeping on his couch with his hat over his face, his leg hanging off the side and his hand wrapped around a bottle. It looked like the entire fraternity family of NYU threw a party of epic proportions.

At first confusion filled her, but it was followed swiftly by anger.

Still clenching one of the bottles in her hand, she walked slowly over to the couch. _Wonderland gets freed and he throws a two-week party while I sit home alone debating my sanity?_

Alice stopped in front of the couch. "Hatter." Nothing. "Hatter, wake up," she said a little louder. Still no answer. She gave the foot hanging off the couch a sharp kick. "Hatter, I swear to god, if you don't wake the hell up…" All Alice got for her efforts were a mumble and Hatter shimmying deeper into the couch cushions.

Exasperated, she made her way back to the door. She opened it and poked her head out, "Dormie? Dormie? DORMIE….. Yes, hi again. Could someone please get me a glass of ice water? It was a long trip and I'm suddenly _parched_."

**_TBC_**


	3. Confusion

**Disclaimer: **_nope, not mine. And that makes me very depressed. I want a Hatter of my own. I will, of course, settle for a cute man with a British accent..._

**A/N:** _Beta and co-writing credit goes to my girl **Renee-chan**_._ Thank you for your patience and putting up with my constant emails! LOL Please read and review! I'll have the second half up sometime this weekend :-)_

_To the handful of people who have reviewed this fic, thank you so much. I truly appreciate it. 3_

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The one good thing about drinking, Hatter realized, was sleeping after. The only thing he'd been worried about was the possibility of Alice haunting his dreams, but after the first couple of nights had gifted him with nothing but blissful oblivion, he no longer feared that. It was nothing but a nice, dark place for him to escape to.

And now he was being abruptly ripped away from that blissful reprieve by a shock of cold water on his face. Hatter jumped up, sputtering, "What the hell?" He wiped the water out of his eyes and looked up and saw… Alice. "Great," he muttered, pressing both his hands to his eyes. "Now I'm bloody hallucinating." He counted to ten and removed his hands. Alice still stood there, hands on her hips and an irritated scowl on that lovely face.

"Yes, I'm still here," she said. "And, no, I'm not a hallucination."

Hatter clenched his jaw. "What do you want?"

Alice frowned at the tone of his voice. "Well, that's a lovely hello. What about this instead? 'Hi, Alice. How've you been? Great to see you. By the way, it's been about **two weeks** since you were here.'"

"Hi, Alice. How've you been? Great to see you. Welcome back," he deadpanned. "Now leave." His stomach clenched at the angry tone in her voice. Fate obviously was not his friend these days, to give him Alice back... and untouchable, unknowable. It was so bloody unfair. Doubtless she'd been expecting a warm welcome from her dear, old pal, but he just couldn't do it. He had to be cold. He couldn't let down his guard and let her in again. If he did, he'd be on his knees in front of her, begging her to change her mind and choose him over Jack. As a matter of fact, that feeling was nearly overwhelming him now. But he had to be strong. He had too much pride.

For her part, Alice felt like she'd been punched in the stomach. This wasn't the Hatter she remembered. She just stood there for a minute, dumfounded at his insensitivity.

After a minute of silence Hatter finally said, "Well, if you're not going to leave, then why are you here?"

That snapped Alice out of her shock. "Why am I here?" she repeated. "I'm here because I spent the last three days trying to convince myself that I wasn't crazy, that I didn't dream up you and Wonderland. According to the authorities, I took a bad fall in the abandoned building while chasing after Jack and was found an hour later. An hour. Look," she said, holding out her arm. "The mark is gone. I had nothing to prove to me that it wasn't a dream." Alice cleared her throat before continuing. "So, I began to think I was crazy after the first day. And I was waiting for you. For you to come and tell me it was real and…" she trailed off, leaving out the part _"…and to be with me."_

"And what," Hatter pushed, unwilling to cut her even a mild amount of slack in the mood he was in.

And then... Alice got mad. "And you never came," she yelled. "You never came for me. I sat there missing you and thinking I was crazy and You. Never. Came!" She was finally fired up. "So I came back here to prove to myself that everything was real and what do I find? You and your tea shop smelling like the after effects of a frat party!"

"Partied," Hatter scoffed. "You think I partied?"

"Well, what would you call all **this**," she asked, gesturing around the room with the hand that still held the vodka bottle.

"'This' is called numbing the pain." At the look of confusion on Alice's face, he bit off a curse. He hadn't meant to let that slip. "And," he rushed on, before Alice could think to ask what pain he was numbing, "I was supposed to come for you? Since when?"

Alice stared at him blankly for a moment before firing back with, "Since I thought we connected! But I guess I was wrong, wasn't I? Why the hell did I think you would come? You didn't even want me to stay in the first place!"

Hatter was starting to feel like he was caught in the middle of some ridiculous farce where nothing made sense except to the people in the audience, "I didn't want you to stay? YOU didn't want ME. So why the bloody hell should I have followed you?"

Alice frowned, "What on Earth are you talking about?"

Hatter rubbed a hand against his forehead. Forget farces, he wasn't even sure they were speaking the same language anymore. He vaguely remembered an old Oyster comedy skit….

_"What's the guy's name on first base?" "No. What is on second." "I'm not asking you who's on second." "Who's on first." "I don't know." "He's on third, we're not talking about him." _

He shook his head and tried to get his mind back onto this extremely twisted conversation. "You chose Jack. I understand. He's a pretty boy. Rich. A prince. Can offer you everything." Before Alice could finish opening her mouth - no doubt to protest - Hatter rushed on, "I saw the way you looked at him in the Looking Glass room, the way you held him. You chose him, not me." Sadly, he shook his head, "After all, why would you want the regular guy with no prospects, yeah? The one who stuck by you through everything, who risked life and limb for you more than once?" Gathering his strength again, he said, "So don't you come to me whining about how I didn't come for you! Where was your Jack when you thought you were going crazy, eh- Oi!" he yelled, ducking as a bottle came flying at his head.

"You... you... Argh! I'd call you a moron," Alice scoffed as she grabbed another bottle to throw at him, "But that would be insulting morons everywhere!"

"You crazy bint," Hatter yelped, ducking as another bottle flew past his head. "What is your problem?" He hurried over to her and grabbed her up in his arms, pinning her own down before she could grab another projectile.

"My problem," she gritted out, struggling against him, "is you!" She tried to twist around to face him, making Hatter struggle to keep steady... a losing battle from the start. Hatter had spent too much time drinking and not enough time eating and Alice was a trained martial artist. He lost his balance and sat down hard on the couch, with Alice landing just as hard in his lap. "Oooh, that's gonna leave a mark," he grunted, closing his eyes against the sudden rush of pain in a very delicate area.

"Good!"

"Oh, so you're happy you made me a eunuch?"

"Only if it makes you smarter."

"Woman, what is with the sudden violence and commentary on my intelligence?"

"Because only a true idiot would think I chose Jack over you! If anything, you didn't choose me!"

"How so?"

"You didn't want me to stay in Wonderland, remember? I believe you're exact words were, 'Hell no'."

Hatter sighed. "I didn't mean it like that. I was just trying to- Well... Besides, you were getting all touchy feely with Jack right before! What was I supposed to think?"

"I was saying goodbye! I gave Charlie a great big hug, too! Did you think I wanted to sleep with him? Maybe he, Jack and I were going to form a happy, little threesome?"

Hatter shuddered. "Oh, please, do not even joke like that." He sighed and loosened his arms a little bit. "Listen, I really didn't mean it like that. Alice, I didn't want you to stay because Wonderland is no place for you. You have friends, a job in your world, yeah? A mum who's already lost a husband? Do you really think staying here would have been a good idea?"

She turned in his lap to face him. "But that doesn't mean I didn't want to hear you ask me any less!"

"Well, why didn't you ask me to come with you? You think I didn't want to hear that?"

"I did!"

"No, you didn't! You asked me to 'visit' - which is insulting."

"Well, you had just told me in no uncertain terms that you didn't want me around!"

"And you were making googly-eyes at Jack!"

"He proposed to me and I said no! How's that making googly-eyes?"

"Oh," Hatter replied, quietly, dropping his arms from Alice as the fight abruptly deflated out of him. "Why?"

"Because," she said, standing up. "I didn't want him. That's what I've been telling you from the beginning of this absurd conversation!" She turned her back to him, eyes beginning to burn. She would not cry in front of him. She would **not.** Sniffling once, she cursed to herself. _And when the hell did I start getting so damned emotional anyway?_ she thought, pushing back the tears.

"So we spent three days trying to 'save' your boyfriend and you didn't even want him?"

"Anymore," she replied, turning around. Alice sighed and crossed her arms. "After I found out who he was and I found out my father was here, it became less about Jack and all about my father. And then… then there was you."

"What about me?" Hatter asked, standing up so they were looking at each other face to face.

"You were there for me the whole way - from helping me on the ledge to killing the man who shot my father. Minus the little misstep with Dodo, of course," she said with a small smile.

Hatter folded his arms across his chest, unwilling to give in just yet, "Yeah, yeah I was."

Alice sighed, "So you didn't follow me to my world because you thought I chose Jack over you. I get that, now. I understand. I even forgive you for it." Her smile got bigger and she stepped closer to him. "But do you get it, now, hmmm?"

Hatter had let the bitterness eat at him for so long that he heard what Alice was saying but couldn't quite believe it. He wanted to... he just couldn't. He just shrugged his shoulders and stuffed his hands in his pockets.

Still smiling, Alice leaned in closer. "All right, then. Let me make it a little clearer for you," she said, grabbing his shirt collar and pulling him down for a kiss. She tried to kiss away the pain that each of their assumptions had caused them.

When they separated, Hatter realized he was holding Alice hard enough to bruise her, but she wasn't complaining. He leaned his forehead against hers and simply whispered, "I've missed you."

"Do you get it now?" she asked again, finally letting the tears leak out. "I chose you, Hatter. I think I chose you the minute you helped me walk across that ledge."

"I chose you the minute you walked into my shop."

They stood that way for what felt like forever, just holding each other. Finally, Hatter broke the silence. "Alice?"

"Hmmm?"

"How's the tea in your world?"

_You see there's no real ending,  
It's only the beginning_

~Her Name is Alice, Shinedown


End file.
